A Licence to smoke?

[ivykaty44]

Would you start smoking if you had to go and get a licence to buy ciggy's? Although for people that already smoke I think it is a bit of a no no - for teenagers I think it may well decrease the youngesters from taking up the habit.

lifestyle.aol.co.uk/health/healthy-living/stop-smoking/call-for-annual-10-smoking-licence/article/20 080216092109990001

i think its the most single ridiculous thing i have heard in my life

Most people probably start smoking by having a crafty puff at parties, and getting fags off older kids. Then there must come a point where you decide to buy your own. I would guess at that point, the need for a license would deter some people which is a good thing. I don't smoke myself and think it's a disgusting habit, but anything that makes it less appealing is surely good?

It's an excellent idea. Of course it would deter people. I'm sure the licences could be forged and it would set up a whole new industry of forged fag licences, but you'd have to exert a lot more energy to get a packet of fags than you do now.

The sooner it's stamped out as a normal habit, the better.

I think it should simply be banned completely.

ha ha ha ha ha ha

Thats the most ridiculous thing I ever 'eard

[said in Marx bros accent]

Barmy- it will become a rite of passage to get your licence regardless if you want to smoke or not then you'll have the official bit of paper.

Not if the licence isn't available until you're 18, by which time most teenagers have lost interest in taking up smoking.

And they should ration them as well, like in the war and in prison.

Do they ration fags in prison? Or do people just buy as much as they can afford or are able to receive them as gifts?

I cant see £10 a year being a great deal for someone who already spends £40 a week on cigs tbh. As for teenagers, you have to be 16 to buy cigarrettes anyway, that doesn't stop them. It will achieve nothing. People will just buy more dodgy duty free.

Fucking ludicrous.

And for all those who would like to ban smoking, can us smokers chose something that we can ban as well?

Just to balance things out, and dilute the pervasive feeling that the world is now being run by do-gooding, holier-than-thou, total bloody prigs.

I think things are a million times better since ban on smoking in public places. I wish it would extend to childrens parks though and such places.

For young people it might be a deterrent (especially if you had to get your parent to sign it).

Desi, I have never managed to do a smoke ring!

it wouldnt work people spend a fortune on smokes why would a 10 pound license bother anyone?

Here Here Desi

[and I don't smoke]

I think it's a rather nifty idea. When I was going through my many giving-up attempts (before I finally made it stick), the thought of having to apply for a license might have helped me to back away from the nicotine. Of course, they'd have to do seomthing about all the black market duty-free.

But surely a huge part of the appeal is that you are underage and it's naughty.

oh God should that be Hear Hear ?

[two glasses of wine down]

Ah, that's because you're using your mouth, not your arse, Mercy

But if your mum or dad had to sign a form?

But my mum and dad didnt even know when I was smoking at 15 and 16. I just got older friends to buy them. How will a licence change that?

I'm also a bit doubtful of being old enough at 16 to have a sexual relationship without a licence or parental permission yet having to do this to smoke a fag!

There will be plenty of places to buy cigs without a licence, plenty.

12 year olds smoke. There's always some dodgy little shop that will sell them to you, or dave from down the road. 12 year olds drink (same). 12 year olds have sex, its illegal, does it stop them? no.

When you're addicted to something you dont care about the cost, you will just find other means of financing it.

It's not the amount of money, it's the fact that you have to go to some trouble to fill in an official form and say 'Yes, I really do want to be a smoker'. For those smokers (and there are a lot of them) who don't want to be smokers any more, this would be a good psychological hurdle.

It's like the donor register - if people have to opt in to something (even something that almost everyone thinks is a good idea, like the donor register), they tend not to do it.

I vehmently disagree with an adult who is making a decision to have to get a licence so that the government will 'allow' them to smoke. It's one thing to make it illegal as a class A drug for example but to make consenting adult apply is beyond the pale.

That's just it. It's totally unenforceable. The police will be engaged in dragging teenagers and adults off the streets for smoking without a license, whilst meanwhile in a street near you, someone is getting stabbed.

The poor buggers have got enough to do without moronic legislation like this.